For all the false talk about the burdens immigrants put on the US health care system, it is important to remember the other side of the story: Without foreign-born health workers, the US systems for medical and long-term care could, quite literally, collapse. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump vows “the largest deportation operation in history” to say nothing of closing [...]
With great fanfare, the Biden Administration recently announced new regulations aimed at increasing staffing at nursing homes and boosting pay for some home care workers. The laudable intention: To improve care for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. But don’t expect changes anytime soon. It will be years before either of these rules are fully implemented. The new [...]
The Biden Administration has announced it will impose new minimum staffing rules for nursing homes. But the regulations appear to give facilities time to meet the requirements. Separately, the Administration also is requiring that home care agencies allocate at least 80 percent of their Medicaid payments to staff compensation. States would have flexibility to adjust the rules for small and [...]
Do nursing home owners understate the profits they report to federal regulators by shifting income to related businesses? Two academic experts in nursing home finance found that in one state 63 percent of margins are hidden this way. To put it another way, only 37 percent of true nursing home profits are reported to federal regulators. A new paper by [...]
President Biden’s 2025 budget proposal, which will double as his presidential campaign platform, includes major proposals aimed at supporting older adults. It would raise taxes to help fund Medicare, increase federal support for Medicaid home-based care,, create a federal family leave program for those caring for older adults as well as children, and toughen regulation and inspections of nursing homes. [...]
The US health system focuses an enormous amount of money and attention on post-acute care—the medical treatment patients receive after they have been discharged from a hospital. But it would more cost effective, and far better for patients, to refocus on what you might call pre-acute care: What the US can do to prevent those hospitalizations in the first place. [...]
Congress is debating whether to impose new restrictions on immigration as the price of a deal to provide new aid to Ukraine and Israel. But some of the biggest victims of this misguided policy will be frail older adults, younger people living with disabilities, and their families. For their sakes, Congress should make immigration easier, not harder, for the nurses [...]
The federal government wants to know more, and wants consumers to know more, about who owns nursing homes. It is about time. And it may help identify some of the worst actors who pollute the nursing home industry. However, without easier access to this new information, I’m not sure how helpful it will be for prospective residents and their families. [...]
The US is desperately short of nurses, personal care aides, and other direct care workers who help frail older adults and younger people with disabilities manage their days. Instead of dealing with the problem, policymakers have, predictably, devolved into their usual partisan blame-mongering. Watch, if you can, this recent hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the worker [...]
Minnesota and Washington are the states that provide the best services and supports for frail older adults, younger people with disabilities, and their families, according to a new study by AARP. The worst performers: Alabama and West Virginia. AARP defines superior supports and services as those that are affordable and accessible, give families a choice of high-quality and safe care [...]